OCTANE CARS
Massimo Delbò’s Mercedes 500 SL up on the ramps; Austin-Healey takes a vineyard tour
of a baby, restoring an old house and the subsequent move, it was time to stop neglecting my 500 SL. During the last few years I have driven it occasionally but didn’t stay on top of any jobs that were needed. So, with a programme of winter work already cancelled due to Italy’s 2020 lockdown, I readied myself for 2021. Just before last Christmas, I drove the car to Mercedes-Benz specialist Vieffe in Milan for a check and overhaul of anything required.
It’s worth mentioning that behind the name Vieffe is my old friend and great technician Fabio Verin, a man equally capable of machining parts for a 1901 car as tuning a 1930 yacht engine or winning an Italian classic car championship in a 1960 formula racer that he prepared himself.
It was Fabio who, in 1991, sorted out my 240 TD’s fuel injection after I’d filled the tank with diesel that contained a lot of rust particles; and it was with Fabio that I spent the craziest night I’ve ever had in London, up until 2am fixing a broken-down car for the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in 2017.
Most unusually for an official dealership, classic car lover Fabio is happy to find room for old cars among the moderns that visit his shop. My car joined a set of R107s, as another four were already there waiting for work to be carried out. Funnily enough, they were all suffering the same problems: a noisy front end, erratic handling, hot-starting difficulties and a dark instrument cluster (caused by an oxidised panel light rheostat). To this list I added inoperative air-con, a faulty odometer – another common fault, when the plastic gears crack with age – and an intermittently functioning horn.
A few days later, I received some photos that showed perished front suspension and steering bushes, cracked rubber engine mounts and a dismantled odometer. When I returned to visit the patient, I saw her equipped with a custom-made frame to suspend the engine from above while the mounts are replaced, and all the other new rubber components being installed. Seeing the old parts really made me realise how badly they had deteriorated and I finally understood why the SL had been moving around under braking